


A Good Night's Sleep

by Geonn



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-24
Updated: 2011-05-24
Packaged: 2017-10-19 18:28:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/203940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geonn/pseuds/Geonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helen and James are able to relax for the first time in eight months. SPOILERS FOR NORMANDY.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Night's Sleep

Helen dipped a towel in the wide bowl, taking a moment to enjoy the cool water on her fingers before she brought it dripping to her face. She pressed it against her right cheek and throat before she touched her left cheek. She turned to examine the injury in the dirty mirror of her room. She'd certainly had worse. And why did it always seem to be her left cheek that got cut, bruised or damaged? She sighed and shook her head as she cleaned the dried blood away. She was exhausted.

Since James' weather machine was stolen, they had been working non-stop to find and recover it. Eight months of constant vigilance, ducking behind enemy lines, working alongside soldiers who had their own objectives, just to get information. Now it was done, and she felt like she could breathe again. They were using one of the French resistance safe houses until they could get picked up and taken home. The Allies were understandably distracted elsewhere today.

She had just started to unbutton her blouse when there was a quiet knock on the door. She was too exhausted to refasten the two buttons, so she kept facing the mirror. "It's open."

James appeared in the reflection behind her, quietly closing the door behind him. Helen tensed, with fear and anticipation and unease. "James. You shouldn't be here. Nigel--"

"Is distracted with the girl, Jeanette. I heard them in the kitchen before they ceased speaking."

Helen was surprised. "She must be--"

"What?" James was smiling as he crossed the room. "Half his age? Quite a bit more than that, I imagine." He stood behind Helen and put his hands on her shoulders. He squeezed, and she closed her eyes. She knew he was watching her in the mirror and she reached up to cover his hands with her own. "How do you feel?"

"Tired."

"I meant how you felt about John knowing--"

"I know what you meant." It came out harder than she intended, so she squeezed James' hand and turned around to face him. "I don't know how I feel about it. Every time I feel like I can forget John, he turns up again in the most unexpected places. Sometimes I fear I'll never be truly rid of him." It was her own fault for sharing her blood with the man who was, at that time, simply her loving fiancé. Only afterward did she discover whose life she had truly extended.

She pushed away thoughts of the past and lowered her hand to James' chest. She could feel the device under the thin material of his shirt. "What about you? John and Korba must have inflicted massive damage."

"There's only so much I can do to repair it here. But I've done what I can. I'm not good as new, but close enough so I won't complain. One good night's sleep should do the trick and I'll feel right as rain. Although I do feel as if I've added ten years to my age."

Helen smiled. "You wear it well." She touched his cheek. "Perhaps you should bring back the beard. It may have some distinguished gray in it now."

"Could you still love a gray-haired old man?"

Helen's smile faded and she dipped her chin. "Yes, darling." She leaned in and kissed him, giving in to the urge that had started the moment she saw his face in the mirror. They had waited so long, and now it felt like every second not spent in each other's arms was a wasted opportunity. They had kept it from Nigel and Nikola for as long as possible, but even Helen noted the way Nikola's nostrils flared when she entered a room after a rendezvous with James. She knew she should bathe, wash away the telltale scent, but she enjoyed knowing that she smelled like her lover.

Their kiss broke, and James lowered his head. Helen moved her hand to his temple and realized that she hadn't returned his question. "How do you feel? About John knowing?"

He met her eyes and forced a smile. "It changes nothing."

"I'm glad. And... the torture. Korba left you disconnected for so long I was afraid the damage would be irreversible."

"I'm fine. But if I had..." He touched her cheek, brushing away a strand of hair that had gotten caught on her eyelash. "If I had died looking at your face, then perhaps it wouldn't have been the worst death in the world."

"Oh. James..." She kissed him and moved him toward the bed.

She could hear the rest of the resistance fighters in other rooms, so she knew they would be overheard. She didn't much care at the moment. She remembered the first time she had been with James. For decades after John's betrayal, Helen had fought her need for companionship. She'd only been comfortable getting close with women, which led to some of the most gorgeous relationships in her life. But James had always been there. John had hurt him as well. When they came together, it felt right. They were helping each other heal the wounds of 1888.

After making love that first night, Helen had left James in her bed and gone directly to the bathroom. She washed her hair and quickly dyed it, eager to change her appearance so she wouldn't be the same woman who passed James over for John all those years ago. When she returned, she saw James sprawled in her bed with a sheet covering his lap. She was a new woman now. A different woman. She was a woman who could love James without feeling guilt for making him wait so long.

She lowered him to the bed with the sounds of war echoing through the stone walls of the abandoned apartment building. Her tongue slipped into his mouth as she unfastened the buttons of his shirt, spreading it open to reveal his device. She was used to it by now, and she considered it a part of his body. She stroked the metal, warm from the contact with his body, and then slipped her fingers underneath to touch his nipple through the thin material of his undershirt.

"You're a maddening woman," he said with a smile.

She grinned and kissed him again. "Shush." Helen was standing between his legs, and she could see him rising against the material of his trousers. She took pity on him and reached down to release him. The sound of the zipper seemed loud in the small room, and she pushed his underwear aside and gripped his cock before guiding it out into the cool air. Helen wrapped her fingers around him, her other hand resting on his neck as they kissed. He knew that she had been exclusively with women since the turn of the century, just as she knew that he preferred the company of men. Somehow that didn't matter when they were together. Helen couldn't trust her heart with a man, but James was an exception. James was always hers, just as she was always his.

She lowered herself to her knees and took him into her mouth with one swift movement. He gasped as her tongue traced along his length, guiding him deeper into her mouth. She gripped his thigh with one hand, feeling the muscle through his pants as she gently applied pressure to his glans with her lips and tongue. He grew hard in her mouth, his hands threading through the long strands of her hair as his breathing became ragged.

He closed his eyes and rolled his head back, and Helen slowed her attack. She retreated and licked her lips, savoring the taste of him before she took him again. The first few times she had done this, she wondered if she pictured men, if he pictured John, was doing it instead. But he never cried out another name, he never gave any indication of a fantasy.

James dropped a hand to her shoulder and squeezed almost painfully. She pulled back with a gasp, releasing him before he was pushed past the point of no return. Helen rose to her feet and stared down at him as she finished the job she'd started before he came in. She shed her blouse and vest, dropping them to the floor and stepping forward. James seemed transfixed by her breasts and their thick nipples, bending forward to place a kiss to her décolletage before sliding his lips over the curve of her breast to suckle her. Helen closed her eyes and moaned his name as she arched her back to feed him more of her.

James, one hand on his erection, reached out with the other. Using one hand each, they undid her trousers. The material ballooned around her calves, so they pooled easily at the floor around her feet. She stepped out of them, still in her boots and socks, and straddled his lap. He kissed the breast he had neglected earlier, sliding his tongue over the nipple, making her moan louder as she spread herself open with two fingers.

A small red light on his device had come on, and Helen stroked his neck. His heart rate was rapid, but still in the safe zone. Helen considered achieving that red light as a victory, almost more than an orgasm. The helmet of his cock pressed against her and she closed her eyes, awaiting that moment when he was fully inside of her. The sides of his cock brushed against her fingers as he pushed slowly, slowly inside of her, and they both gasped at the contact.

Helen put her hands on James' chest and began to move against him. He let himself fall back, braced on his elbows as Helen moved, riding him slowly. They kept eye contact, James' eyes occasionally straying down to her body. That first night had been full of touching, exploring. Teasing curves and testing softness. He had pressed his fingers into the tender spot under her ribcage and she'd writhed like a kitten being stroked.

Now he touched her there again, and Helen groaned as he probed that sensitive area. He used his thumb and forefinger and Helen felt it clear through her entire core. "Yes, James... there. Harder." He lifted his hips as Helen moved faster, one hand holding his to her side. Helen squeezed him tightly, no longer caring about being overheard.

A part of her brain suddenly feared the possibility that John wasn't truly gone, that he would come here to try and speak with her. The idea of him appearing in the room and seeing what he had left behind, what he'd abandoned, made her move faster. James groaned and dropped his hand to her thigh. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. The moonlight reflected off the dirty window and cast a pale blue aura around her from behind. Helen could see her shadow moving across her body as she moved and it made her feel like she was covering his entire body. She guided his hand to her clit and he took the initiative, stroking her until she cried out her orgasm.

James' face was red and the tendons in his neck stood at attention as Helen rose from him, sliding down his body. She guided his cock back to her mouth just as he let go, filling her mouth with his come. She stroked him, her other hand pushing inside his pants to roll his balls over her fingers as she drank what he offered. She stroked the throbbing tip of him with her tongue, cleaning him up before she kissed the side of the shaft and put it back into his trousers.

James lay panting on her bed, arms to either side, and Helen moved up to stretch out beside him. He smiled at her and they kissed, her tongue in his mouth again. He stroked her body, and she touched his face until he fell back from exhaustion.

Helen smiled and put her head on his shoulder, next to the strap that held his device in place. "What was that you were saying about a good night's sleep, James?"

He chuckled. "It can always wait for tomorrow, in my own bed."

"Good answer."

He put his arm around her, taking a moment to catch his breath before they embarked on their latest sleepless night.


End file.
